Unfortunately this is likely our last trip with just one baby. We decided to make the most of our time since this was really our last vacation before baby #2 arrives and life gets crazy. We had all sorts of fun outings and many of them didn't even involve getting ridiculously yummy food. Although we did eat good food... The Cuban sandwiches from Paseo were noteworthy, as was our trip to Uneeda Burger, and the late night trip to Hot Cakes Molten Chocolate Cakery. Also worth mentioning was the killer chicken marinade Matt Thorne made for our 4th of July BBQ. What can I say, honestly even just the baked salmon my Mom made a few times is making me drool right now. BUT enough about food!!! That's not why anyone visits our humble little blog now is it? Here are a ton of pictures, mostly of our adorable child.
On one occasion she brought over Grandma Jeanne's most covetted stuffed dog and was telling the dog to "stay." When she does this she stands in front of the dog and points her finger then says, "DAY!" Which of course means stay. I love that she does this, it's what I do every morning before letting our dog Ruby out for her potty break. :)
On one of the days we were there it was disgustingly hot for Seattle (where we have no AC at Grandmas house because you usually don't need it...) and we decided to beat the heat with a trip to Meydenbauer Beach where we met up with Anna and her kids. We had so much fun playing with those guys, and Jack, Savannah and Willow were all so great playing with and watching out for Viv. For the entire trip! Of course having left 100 degree temps in Utah Morgan and I thought Seattle would be a relief. As such we both forgot to put sunscreen on ourselves (not Viv, she was lathered good), and we both burned pretty bad. In gray rainy Seattle! Honestly, Seattle summers are the best kept secret :)
This is a beautiful park, and had we not gotten so sunburned we would have return the next day too!
That evening Morgan and I were able to sneak out and go for a walk around West Seattle. It was a beautiful evening, and it was so nice to just get out by ourselves!!!
The next day we made a quick trip to Pike Place where we ate yummy donuts, smoothies with "bubbles," and bought some real big, juicy Rainier cherries. As you can see from the picture below Vivienne didn't love the market, even when we gave her a fresh powdered donut! Which she has all over herself in the picture.
She was tired and ready to leave by the time we were done.
We enjoyed our 4th of July visiting Anna's family on Bainbridge Island. It is so fun to take a ferry from bustling Seattle and suddenly find yourself in a small town environment! Vivienne loved waving around the small flags that Savi and Willow so nicely shared with her. She also kept getting more and more brave wandering further and further into the path of the parade.
That evening we watched Matt and Jack set off some awesome fireworks (each time they set off a firework the neighborhood boys would say, "that was AWESOME"!). One of the fireworks even tried to kill my Mom! Then later we watched the likes of Neil Diamond and Barry Manilow sing on TV, which prompted Miss Savannah to put on a show of her own for us. It was the highlight of the evening really :).
Morgan and I were so looking forward to leaving Viv with a sitter while she slept and going out to watch the fireworks be set off in the bay, but being a 7 months pregnant momma got the better of me and Morgan and I headed to bed early. Lame. Happy 4th of July baby :)
Here are a few pics of Vivienne with her cousins: Tea time with Willow, and sitting pretty with Savannah.
The next day Vivienne enjoyed running around on the ferry ride home so much so that she got upset when we tried holding her for a picture.
Later, when Brita and Matt had returned from Fiji we made a trip to the Woodland Park Zoo. This was Viv's first trip to the zoo and it didn't go as well as we'd hoped. However I think it went well enough that she mostly enjoyed herself. We even saw the cutest baby jaguars!
On one of the days (I'm out of order here) I was finally able to take Morgan out to Denny Creek, which he has heard about, from me, multiple times. We hiked up to Franklin Falls, which luckily is an easy hike because we didn't bring a hiking pack to put Viv in and had to carry her the whole way.
I used to love coming here when I was younger. Still beautiful today, and a cool relief from the heat!
This was such a fun trip and Viv loved just being with everyone. She was so tired after we finally got home Monday morning that she took close to 3 hour naps for 3 days in a row! If you know Vivienne, you know that is unheard of!
Thanks for having us family! Thanks Seattle for the perfect weather! Now I'm ready to just have this next baby already!!!
And just for kicks:
The food was so good...
